Chan Lowe: Allen West, vice-president?

God bless Allen West. For someone who’s supposed to be a politician, his utterances can be most impolitic. Maybe the rough edges are a source of his appeal.

While his “Joseph Goebbels would be proud of the Democrat Party” comments were still reverberating through South Florida and beyond, West fell for a set-up that any solon worth his salt could have batted aside with ease. What if Romney tapped him to be his running mate, he was asked. This is the kind of question that custom dictates should be deflected with extreme modesty, no matter how much the responder may hunger for the job. A simple, “What, are you out of your mind?” or, “I won’t even entertain that question, it’s so far out of the realm of possibility,” is the standard riposte.

But instead, Col. West got all soldierly, and said something clunky and revealing about how he wouldn’t turn his back if his country asked him to step up. Which means he’s been thinking about it.

Here’s a man who stands a good chance of not even being able to hang onto his own congressional seat actually entertaining the fantasy that a Romney/West ticket would help the human answering machine get elected.

You have to give West points for chutzpah, a word many in his district know, along with who Joseph Goebbels was. And there’s no question that the debate between him and Joe Biden would be an instant classic. Let’s start a write-in campaign.